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Today's Marketing Sherpa had a great example of a split test run on a landing page, an attempt to improve conversion by a Canadian site (All Canadian Investment Corporation). Net result, the 3-column page with (1) least content, (2) easiest to read design and (3) button for answering the call to action above the fold solidly outperformed the single column (control) and two-column (test) with more content, longer copy.

With most eCommerce sites experiencing 60% abandonment at the shopping cart (according to MarketingSherpa research), it seems pretty logical to suggest that this is an ideal place to start when making changes to your site. In golf, many instructors advise their students to "start at the hole, and work backward to the drive" when improving their game. Yet the focus still seems to be on "front end stuff," like driving traffic (SEO/SEM), for which the levers seem easier to identify (add money and stir).

What site designers need to consider is "why," someone comes to the site, follows the path all the way to the cart and then bails out. It seems like such a waste of time, not only for the customer, but the online merchant, as well. When customers are asked why they leave at this point . . . many of their answers boil down to "unpleasant surprises." The shopping cart is the wrong time to find out, for the first time, about shipping charges or other hidden fees. It's also the wrong time to present endless forms for completion, which may include registration or signing up/opting out of special offers and emails. We seem to forget that when they get here, they are ready to go . . . and that if you delay them that they will really go . . . as in go away.

If you only have a little time to work on your site, look at the cart. It may be at the end of the line, but if loaded with barriers for visitors, it should be at the beginning of your plan for site improvement.

Tracking online PPC results for activity that starts and finishes on the site is reasonably easy. However, when offline action follows online prompting, it gets a little tricky. So, we'd like to tip our hat in thanks to Bill Hartzer, writing in WebProNews for a concise article profiling "Voicestar . . . (a) company that allows you to track all of the phone calls to your business and know exactly where you're getting the greatest ROI, whether it's from print ads, organic search results, PPC ads, or even a printed catalog."

Reading further, we find out that:

"Calls can be tracked by their status: good calls, voicemail calls, hangups, are all tracked, and all the Caller ID information is saved. The calls themselves can be saved for future reference, and the calls can be heard through your PC’s speakers. Certain “groups” can be set up: you can assign certain types of calls to certain groups and see which ads out of the group are producing results. Some of the reports allow you to compare certain campaigns (reports can be emailed daily, weekly, monthly). Data is pulled if there is activity. Some of the types of reports that are available include an ad report, a user report, a top callers report, a top zip codes report, an ROI calculator, a calls by hour report, and a user access log report. "

Bill got a lot of good comments on this post. One answered my most pressing question, namely, what other services are out there offering to support tracking at a reasonable price. From "samplevoice" (name not given), commenting on Bill's post we learn:

"There are many call tracking providers out there and price points have gone down considerable thanks to some of the newer VoIP-based providers.

Of these, eStara and Ingenio specialize in pay for performance applications, in print and offline campaigns."

From our readers, we'd be interested in your comments on any of these services. Have you used them, or recommended them to your clients? What happened? Were you satisfied with the results? Please let us know.

The case history of ParrotSecrets.com's foray into market testing (multivariate testing rather than traditional A/B stuff) was a facinating read. The two-phased approach started with "seven factors and 20 variations " for the headline, site copy, pricing, color scheme, etc. that would have taken years to test in the A/B format.

After feeding the data in to "the program" (The Conversion Multiplier) created by the owner of the parrot site (Sumantra Roy) and his marketing colleague (Dick Shaver), the research team was presented with 16 versions of the offering plus a control for Phase I testing. The program apparently did not like any of the 16 versions after testing, and generated 3 new versions, all at the highest test price, with a red (gasp) background for Phase II testing.

At the end of the story, the site owners were delighted to report an order increase of 40%, a dramatically reduced abandonment rate and increased conversion for the newsletter (0.4% to more than 3%).

Given the inducement offered by Roy (owner of The Conversion Multiplier), namely a pay (only) for performance scheme for using his software, I'm wondering if anyone else out there has taken him up on his offer and generated comparable results? If you have, we'd love to hear about it. We've been looking a long time for a tool to recommend to some of our clients who struggle with conversion even after their traffic has taken a favorable bounce.

Take a look at the article. Visit Roy's website. And let us know if you think he's on to something, or if it's just too good to be true. We're hopeful!

"Well, isn't that obvious?" How often have I heard this said? Usually by someone for whom it was not at all obvious (based on their actions) just a millisecond before they uttered these words.

At the risk of offending some (though believe me, not intentionally . . . this is a good-hearted blog), I'd like to quote* something attributed to Jennifer Laycock, Editor of the Search Engine Guide, from her presentation at SES - San Jose ("Big Ideas for Small Sites & Small Budgets" - moderated by one of our favorite people, Anne Kennedy):

Many thanks to Anne Holland and her colleagues at MarketingSherpa for sharing an executive summary of the 2006 Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide. Filled with easily understood charts and graphs, we certainly recommend a glance at the summary and support purchase of the complete document by those who are responsible for allocating the enterprise marketing budget.

One recommendation shown at the end of the summary should be greeted warmly by our friends the Eisenbergs down in Brooklyn. We're referring specifically to "Practical Insight #5 - Base Your Copywriting and Offers on Persona Research." The number of companies reporting the use of persona-tailored media has grown significantly, particularly the Software/ASP sector which has moved from 9% in 2004 to 22% in 2006. Additionally, 40% of the marketers in the Hardware sector report positively on this practice.

For those who are interested in what appears to be working today in the competive arena, we recommend taking the time to read and evaluate the findings reported by the MarketingSherpa team. If you are interested in improving conversion (and who isn't), you'll find a lot to consider here.

Simply put, Brian takes a look at the contribution made by search engine strategy (SEO/SEM), design, targeted content development (solid copy) and a clear and easy pathway to making the purchase at (four) different stages of the buying cycle. Note that he refers to the "buying cycle" not the "sales cycle," which is to us a clear indication that he "gets" conversion at its essence.

The article is short and to the point. Take a minute to read what Brian has to say. It's worth a look.

As much as we hate to admit it, we often find ourselves in the ranks of the "late adopters" when it comes to certain technologies. For example, we read and re-read reviews on digital cameras for over 2 years before deciding on a replacement for our well-worn but distinctly oversized Sony Mavica 10X (3.5 inch disk model). And while we've got great audio capability (courtesy of our spouse's nifty Edirol-R1, plus a collection of other solid state recorders) we still don't have a field-functional video recorder.

Similarly, I've been embarrassed to admit another big techno-gap . . . namely, my own limitations regarding dimensional presence. A significant number of my colleagues at Berkman Thursday, who are constantly exploring the edges of technology, have doubled their pleasure (and presence) by coexisting in an exciting virtual world called Second Life. In Second Life, one moves through the world in the form of an avatar, interacting with others (in similar form) and engaging in conversation, collaboration and commerce.

It's the potential for commerce that really got our attention. Because, where there's commerce, there's conversion. Apparently it's gotten the attention of others (Business Week, HBR, etc.) as well, which has provided me with some justification (in conversations with the Edirol-wielding spouse) for spending a not-insignificant amount of time online exploring this alternative world.

In future posts, I hope to share what I learn as I explore the potential of doing market research and large group process work in Second Life. Among the more complex behavioral questions that I'll be seeking to answer is whether Second Lifers' preferences and actions mirror their real-world selves, or are driven by the persona of their in-world (e.g. Second Life state) avatars?

Here at Online Conversion & Beyond, we're always trolling for good statistics, particularly those that tell a story. From Bambi Francisco's Net Sense (Citysearch touts human relations - May 16, 2006)we get an interesting perspective on why Citysearch has continued to prosper for 10 years, despite improvements in search technology and competitors like Ask.com.

The answer - according to CEO Briggs Ferguson, is that Citysearch is a content site, not a search engine. Solid reviews of restaurants and events (created by an editorial staff of 100, and those wonderful consumers with an itch to produce content) have produced excellent results. In fact, "according to Scott Morrow, Citysearch executive vice president of search and products . . . 16% of the clicks convert into an offline local transaction."

Not a bad result, eh? We've got clients who would kill for results like that (or even half). How about you?

Recently, the good news is that we've been flat out on client assignments. The bad news is that we've been neglecting our faithful readership, and for that we apologize. Look for more frequent posts, as we carve out time to share our thoughts on the world of conversion, and seek your input on questions of mutual concern and interest.

Our thought for the day, borne out of recent client work, is that now more than ever, lots of people are spending piles of money driving traffic to their eCommerce websites. When you ask them "what do you want?" the responses echo Oliver Twist . . . "more!" However, if they were only getting half as much traffic, and their conversion went from 1% to 3%, they'd be way ahead.

We assume that this is far short of "revealed scripture" to our readership. However, we continue to be amazed at the fixation on traffic that is evident in the marketplace.

Perhaps the traffic-hypnotized accept their current conversion rate as a given? Or maybe they just don't know where to begin to fix the problem. What's your take on this? Let us know.

Wish We'd Said It First

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.